1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to vibration elements, a process for manufacturing a vibration element, optical scanners including the vibration element, and an image forming apparatus including the vibration element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vibration element including a vibration part vibrates to the vibration element and a beam supporting the vibration part in order to make the vibration part available to vibrate has been known as disclosed in laid-open Japanese Patent Applications JP2002-321196, JP2002-321197, JP2002-321198, JP2002-267966, JP2002-341285, JP1999-52278, and JP1992-211218. The vibration element including a reflection part that reflects light is used as an optical element.
These optical elements have developed through research for optical deflectors using silicon micro-machining, and have advantages such as reducing electric power consumption and its size as compared to the optical elements using a polygon mirror.
It is required for the vibration elements, in case it is used as optical elements, to have a rapid vibration and a large deflection angle for obtaining higher resolution with accuracy and speeding up. These requirements are required to the vibration elements not only in case it is used for optical elements but also if it is used for other elements.
Complying with these requirements, the vibration element may cause a problem in that a beam of the vibration element will be easily damaged when the deflection angle gets larger in a vibration process of the vibration elements.
However, a structure which would be considered that a beam has greater strength in laid-open Japanese patent applications JP2002-321196, JP2002-321197, and JP2002-321198, the shown structure is relatively complex. So it is desired to strengthen the beam in a simple way.